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For All These Things

Even 13 years after his death my relationship with my dad is complex. He was both idol and enemy when I was growing. Someone I desperately wanted to be proud of me and someone I absolutely did not want to grow up to be.

What brings this to mind was sitting in the gravel of my driveway this past week doing body work on one of our cars. Sand, Bondo, sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, finish coat, rub, finish coat. The job I did is far from a top quality job but it was also in areas people largely won’t see. There was a section on the fender that should have gotten a little extra attention but I ran out of time.

I learned all this because my dad would drag me down to the garage to show me how to do things because “One day you’ll need it”. Over the last couple decades I’ve done a bit of simple body work and helped keep cars passing inspection and on the road. I really didn’t want to learn these skills (working with body putty is smelly, sticky, messy WORK) but there was no opt out back those days.

Today I can not only do the quick and easy jobs like these but I can figure out how to approach more complicated ones plus know how to really do the job right if I have the time and need.